NYC - by Moultrie Townsend

      Mean, pushy, wired and outrageously expensive: These are all adjectives that I had heard to describe New York and its people from an early age. I also had heard and sometimes used the word “Yankee” as a pejorative. It was against my upbringing to accept a city and a region that simply had to have its way and the rest of the country be damned. At least, that’s how it seemed looking out from the Battery onto Charleston harbor.

      Provincial yet somewhat sophisticated – that’s how I would describe myself as a Charlestonian. Cosmopolitan yet brash, ambitious and often rude – that was my image of New Yorkers. For many years, I wasn’t able to reconcile the two to find a bond strong enough to bring me to visit the city.
After moving to Atlanta in 2006, my attitudes changed some, but I was still in the South- close enough to my comfort zone in order to avoid a major change in my outlook. Just last year, I finally came up with a common bond through our national pastime – baseball. I had worked for the Braves a few summers earlier, so my interest in baseball has risen to near childhood levels. I also shared my mother’s ultimate goal of seeing all the major league ballparks in our lifetimes. While neither of my parents were able to join me on my trip, my mother’s ambition became part of my motivation for taking the leap to the Big Apple. Once I found a week in mid-April with the Mets and Yankees in town at the same time, the basic timeframe for my trip was set.

        Next, I faced the question of cost and logistics. I imagined myself arriving to Penn Station by train and staying in a nice hotel room on the Upper East Side. In the end, time and money dictated that I fly coach into Laguardia and stay in a hostel with roommates. Luckily, I found a hostel with an ideal location right by Columbus Circle. This initial planning stage drove home my first NYC lesson concerning the importance of efficacy over style – or in other words, just do it by any means necessary.

My other motivation for my trip included visiting the one person I knew who lived in the city. One of my fellow teachers in Russia worked as an ESL instructor in Queens. The chance to hang out with her made the big city seem a little less scary. As it turned out, meeting up with my friend served as a perfect introduction to New York City. We found each other near the Dakota on 72nd Street and enjoyed a nice walk through Central Park. We didn’t have time to explore the whole park, so we wound up using her pass to get a peek at the Metropolitan Museum of Art during the rest of our afternoon. The museum was really interesting, and she knew a lot about it. After all, her grandfather was the Director of the museum in the 40’s and 50’s. Overall, it was great to catch up with her, but I could tell from our conversation that her life in NYC was hectic to say the least. After leaving her at the steps of the Met, I was on my own to take as big a bite as I could out of the proverbial “Big Apple.”

      I was told ahead of time that the food was one of the main draws to New York City. While my budget left me a little limited in exploring this area, food stands and dive restaurants were perfect for blending variety with low cost dining. Leaving the Met, I was starving, so I stopped at a food stand at the foot of the museum. Not just any food stand, this one sold every possible variety of cupcake. Awesome! With a little sugar in me, I walked across Central Park to the West Side. I just wandered around, watching people do their Saturday afternoon shopping. Columbus Avenue in particular was busy at this time of day, and if I could get my bearings, I could follow it south to Columbus Circle. On my way, I passed the famous hot dog place, Gray’s Papaya, and I stopped in to sample a dog. It was great, but I wasn’t all that hungry. I continued on to my hostel where I formally checked into my room before leaving for the theater.

        My third stated goal in coming to New York City was to see my fellow Charlestonian and worldwide star Stephen Colbert. Not entirely sure about my chances of getting to see the Colbert Report, I also bought a ticket for the Saturday night show of “Company” at Lincoln Center. Neil Patrick Harris was the lead, but Colbert also played a major part in the production. It turns out that they were taping the 5 shows for a movie production of the Stephen Sondheim’s 1970 musical, but I didn’t find that out until later. I got to the theater about an hour early, just enough time to catch a bite to eat and wait in line for security checks inside the theater. I was in the upper balcony, but I doubt if there was a bad seat in the place. The musical was great, and the production was especially powerful because the full New York Philharmonic played all the music. Jon Cryer was the other major star in the show, but all the performers were great. I was honestly afraid that I had peaked on my first day of my New York experience, but I had yet to see the Statue of Liberty or Yankee Stadium.

          Sunday was scheduled to be an especially long day, and unfortunately, I had failed to adapt to my new sleeping quarters. Sleep deprivation would plague me the rest of trip, but I tried my best to adopt a New Yorker attitude about it by running on adrenaline and caffeine. I wandered around a fairly desolate Times Square on Sunday morning before reporting to the tour headquarters at 8:30. I signed up for an all day bus tour in order to get a feel for the city, and I’d say I got my money’s worth. The first stop was Grant’s Tomb near Riverside Park. The tour guide was on older Jewish guy with a background in radio and television. While not a lifelong New Yorker, he knew the history and the culture, and on the whole he told pretty good stories throughout the trip. The next stretch of the tour was all by bus where was saw Harlem and the Apollo Theater. We also saw the “Museum Mile” and the “Gold Coast”, and the guide pointed out a few noteworthy buildings along the way. We stopped second at the Flatiron Building to take pictures.

Architecture is a big deal in New York, and the Flatiron Building was one of the more innovative buildings of the early 20th century. The guide also told us about building add-ons and the concept of buying air space. Apparently, buying air was cheaper than buying real estate, and with the proper permit, people could add a two-story apartment to the top a building. The result was pretty funny looking, but it was a good deal for the homebuyers.

          Our group passed into an older area of New York for lunch. We ate at a restaurant in Little Italy, followed by some free time to explore Little Italy and Chinatown. I was randomly paired with a South African touring the country on his way to visit his brother in Florida. I joked with him that the South African at the Masters might just take the tournament. He replied that he was going to watch the late holes after the tour, and sure enough, his guy won in spite of a fairly crowded top field.

After pointing out the old city hall, the guide led us back onto the bus heading toward Downtown. We arrived at the entrance to the World Financial Center through which the Ground Zero site was visible. This part was by far the most powerful lecture of the tour, The tv images just didn’t do justice to the breadth of destruction on 9/11, and there was a distinct air of reverence throughout that part of the tour. I especially enjoyed seeing the American Express fountain built in honor the AE employees that died in the tragedy. That tribute offered a serenity and personal touch that was harder to detect in the massive construction site visible from the other side of the building.

Lastly, the group boarded a boat to tour the harbor on a relatively sunny afternoon. Our boat didn’t make any stops, but the views were impressive. I made sure to snap some pictures of the Statue of Liberty because the next day’s forecast was much worse. I was also fascinated to look upon the New Jersey side, and I even took a picture of the Goldman Sachs building and the adjacent Colgate clock. I always enjoy a pleasant boat ride, and looking back at New York from the harbor really put the whole place into perspective. For a contrasting view, our tour bus dropped us off at the Top of the Rock following our boat tour. The views from the top were great, but I didn’t linger long. I needed to catch a bite to eat before making another musical at eight.

            The Theater District seemed crowded and dirty to me, but once inside, the magical world of Broadway I had imagined as a child actor opened up to me. For this event, I was so close to the stage that I could see the band under the crack in the risers. I was in the very first row all the way over to the left. I was worried that this seat would lead to an obstructed view, but it turned out to be just a little bit awkward. The songs were great in the South Park’s creators’ first musical, “The Book of Mormon.” It was really funny and thought provoking, but it wasn’t as mean and bitingly satirical as I thought it might have been. The theater was packed to capacity, and a few months later, this show practically swept the Tonys. I felt like I was part of something special, and as a bonus, I could talk about it with my cousin when I got back to Atlanta. She and her husband had seen the show a few weeks earlier on a birthday trip to New York. After the show, I walked back to the hostel pretty exhausted but satisfied by a very full day.

The weather turned significantly Monday morning, and I set out a little earlier than really necessary to make the nine o’clock ferry to Ellis Island. Since I had some time to kill, I found my way over to Trinity Church in the Financial District. The interior was very impressive, and its atmosphere was almost serene. However, it still made me shudder a little realizing that so many powerful men in politics and business had passed through those church doors. I made my way past Wall Street to the harbor and Battery Park where I found the ticket line forming just outside Clinton Castle.

            The cold, rainy weather took the mystique out of seeing the Statue of Liberty a second time, so I skipped the Statue stop and went straight to the Ellis Island Immigration museum. The Great Hall was powerful in itself, but each exhibit had its own amazing story as well. I could have stayed there all day, but I moved through the exhibits fairly quickly with the help of the audio guide. I can’t imagine what an immigrant being processed through Ellis Island must have experienced, but the museum certainly some insight and perspective concerning such an important part of our nation’s founding.

Steeping off the boat, I headed back to the subway where I caught the train uptown toward the Upper West Side. I wanted to get off at the Natural History Museum. However, I accidentally got on an express train that didn’t stop there, so I had to get off near Harlem and wait for the number one train back toward Midtown. The Natural History Museum was pretty amazing, but I really can’t stay in any museum much more than two hours. I did see several items that I remembered from the movie “A Night at the Museum”. Overall, I was too tired to fully enjoy everything I was seeing that day, so I took a time out at the museum cafeteria to take in a leisurely lunch.

            In my first real deviation from my pre-planned schedule for the trip, I skipped my tour of the United Nations because I needed to be back near Central Park in the mid-afternoon. I got to 57th Street and Broadway right on time, and after about an hour and a half of waiting in various lines, I entered the Ed Sullivan Theater to see the Friday taping of the “Dave Letterman Show.” The show employee helping us would not tell us who the main guest on the show was, but she did say that she was very excited about it. After a few courses inside and outside the theater in clapping and appropriateness, we were all ready for Late Nite. Dave came out to talk to us at one point, and we were treated to a short concert by the Tonite Show band. It was really cool to see them in person, and their lineup even included an original Blues Brother, the trombonist, Tom “Bones” Malone. From my balcony seat, I could see all the inner-workings of the show, particularly during commercial breaks. It really was a thrill to be a part of a live television show, but the biggest highlight had to be the main guest: Tina Fey. She was pregnant, pushing her new book and as always, very funny. The interview ran long, and it was amazing to see how comfortable she seemed in that setting. The comedian and band afterwards must have felt a little slighted to be following such a great star, but I am also a little biased as a fan of SNL and Thirty Rock.

I shot out of the theater right as the lights came up because I had an hour to get to Brooklyn. The night before, I had bought an online ticket to a comedy show at a little dive bar called “Littlefields.” One of the hosts and main headliners was Kristen Schaal, a contributor on the Daily Show and the voice of a character on Fox’s “Bob’s Burgers.” I thought she was hysterical, and this fact motivated me to get on the train at night to a completely unfamiliar part of New York. Predictably, I got on an express train by accident, so I had to get off one stop early and literally run up 4th Street in central Brooklyn to reach the theater by eight. It turned out that the running was unnecessary because all the seats were already taken mostly by people reserving them for friends to arrive later. The place was very small with a bar at the entrance and a bunch of fold out chairs and a stage in the second room. It was more like a performance space than a theater, but I after all wanted a taste of the real New York City. In my pocket, I had a ticket to “Phantom of the Opera” for that night, but I was much happier going with my last-minute plan. The comedy was incredible. Kristen and her comedy partner, Kurt, were brilliant, and the other comedians were good too. A rookie member of the SNL cast, Jay Pharaoh, even showed up to do a set. Through the whole thing, it was clear that some of the comedians were just trying out material on the audience. The show was definitely a main highlight of my New York trip, and I dragged myself back up 4th Street to the subway just before midnight.

             The next morning was free of any pre-planned activities, so I slept in until 6:45. Then, I walked over to Central Park and found the 63rd Street YMCA where a morning Al-Anon meeting was gathering at 7:30. It was very interesting to hear the same sort of problems that I heard on a regular basis in Atlanta but in a New York City context. They also used a wireless microphone and amp so that everyone could hear each other. I spent the next few hours walking around and doing some basic shopping in lieu of doing laundry. After a brief stop back at the hostel, I got back on the subway to meet my two o’clock tour of Noho, Soho, Little Italy and Chinatown. The tour guide was really cool, and the tour itself turned out to be very informative. The tour was free, but we were expected to tip well. I walked back to the hostel in the rain to wait a bit for the other main highlight of my New York trip – seeing the Colbert Report in person.

           The Colbert Report theater was within walking distance of my hostel, so I could easily make sure that I there in plenty of time. I made it there for the check-in time, and the interns outside the building told me to come back a little later. So, I sat in a Fordham bookstore for a while before it was time to cram myself into the crowded waiting room the separated the eager crowd from the Colbert Studio. I did however get someone to take a picture of me standing in front of the smiling cutout picture of Stephen on the wall. Finally, they let us in and assigned us seats. Some interns barked out instructions about when to clap, cheer or even yell our heads off, and just before the show, Stephen came out as himself (not his character) to answer a few questions from the crowd. That part was cool, but he didn’t call on me – oh well. The show was really funny and exciting even if ‘menthe guests were less than spectacular. The first guest was the National Review editor who was asked to handicap the Republican primary race. The second guest was Ray Kurtweil, a futurist physicist and documentary filmmaker. This guy thought that within 50 years people would all have millions of tiny computer chips inside them to regulate every aspect of their health. He was kind of creepy, and we all got a copy of his DVD on the way out which I have yet to watch by the way. Overall, the Colbert Report was exhausting, exciting and a little disappointing (most due to overly built-up expectations).

 
             In typical New York fashion, one rainy day was followed by another one, but my plans went ahead as scheduled. After breakfast, I got on the subway toward Greenwich Village. I hurried through the rain a few blocks over to the entrance to the High Line - a park situated on an old elevated subway line. The walk was pleasant, and several pieces of public art were interspersed along the path. There were even at set of bells in a covered area that were really interesting. In spite of the rain, the early morning excursion was nice, but it would have been really spectacular on a sunny spring day. I reached the exit at Gaavensport Street and looked around for the cross street to get me to meeting point for my Greenwich Village tour. I got there a little bit early, so I wandered the side streets and found a splendid little chocolate shop. I bought the smallest most expensive piece of chocolate I have ever seen, but it was absolutely exquisite.

           I recognized the guide walking up the street from the day before, and I was very excited to see a very different and vibrant part of New York city. The tour started in Noho, but it wound around several neighborhoods ending at Washington Park near NYU. Along the walk, we saw several movie-related sites including a pi--aria that was used in a “Men in Black” movie. I also saw the “Friends” apartment, the “Cosby” house and Heath Ledger’s apartment where he died. The coolest part of the tour was definitely Café Wha?. This café was very influential in the folk scene in the 50’s and 60’s, and it was the first major place Bob Dylan performed after arriving to New York City. On the second half of the tour, we walked several different parts of NYU, but Washington Park was sort of a let-down because it was raining. There were no street performers or vendors out that day, but the tour was well worth the ten dollar tip I had stashed away to give the guide at the end of the tour.

           After a brief lunch, I went back Uptown to make the 2 pm matinee of “Spiderman”. The theater wasn’t full, so I got a side aisle seat in the upper balcony where I could see the trapeze flying performers very well. The music and the story were great, and there were no technical problems at all on that day. I was also lucky enough to see the show before they did a major rewrite, followed by the official launch. I liked the story as it was written, but the producers wanted more mass appeal to make more money for the show. Oh well. After my third and final broadway show, I caught the train to my first baseball game.

The Yankees game had rained out the night before against the Orioles, and the weather forecast wasn’t much better for that evening either. Unphased, I charged ahead anyway, and I got to the stadium just in time to tour Monument Park where they keep all the retired number and honor plaYques. I even got someone to take of picture of me in front of the Babe Ruth memorial. My seats were very good on the first base line, but it a little rainy and too cold for my tastes. The Uconn mens basketball team was introduced at the beginning of the game, and Brooklyn-native, , threw out the first pitch. By the third inning, the Yankees were already up six to nothing, and I was getting colder and colder. The fans around me were really nice though, and I wanted to stay. So, I went to the Hard Rock Café in the stadium and to get a nice meal and to watch the rest of the game on television. Yankee stadium was impressive but expensive, but it definitely created a lasting memory for me.

            Instead of taking the train right to Columbus station, I went back to Times Square for one last night time view of the city. I wound up being suckered into going into a little comedy club. The place was a rip-off, but the one highlight was seeing “Dot-Com” from “30 Rock” perform. Very exhausted, I walked back to the hostel for one last fitful night’s sleep before leaving New York City the next day. I got up in plenty of time to check out, headed to the subway with my backpack, and rode the one train to the seven train headed for Queens. I had mapped out the route to the Louis Armstrong Museum, and I arrived just in time to receive a full tour. The museum was his house in his last three decades of life where he lived with his fourth wife, a dancer and performer. The house was small but very modern for the time it was built. It was also explained that Louis preferred to stay in Queens rather than move to ritzier neighborhoods. He would often be seen playing trumpet with neighborhood children on his front steps, and the Chinese garden is still used by school music groups for concerts to this day. The tour was very informative, and it would have pleased my grandfather to no end to learn that I had visited the home of his hero, Louis Armstrong.

        My last stop on my New York trip was perhaps my least favorite partly because I had always despised the New York Mets. However, their new ballpark at Flushing Meadows was great, and the team was so bad that they could really only be pitied. That afternoon, I caught the first game of a daytime doubleheader from my seat in left field. I even saw Mr. Met come by to greet the fans. The food there was fancier than at most ballparks, and at one stand, you even get a lobster roll. The game was fun, and the weather was outstanding. I was almost sorry that I couldn’t catch the second game. However, I had to get over to Laguiadia to make my 6 pm flight. Flying out of New York, it felt like I was leaving a different world to rejoin a quieter, saner one. That said, I couldn’t help but leave with a new found respect for New York City with its storied history, amazing perseverance and endless potential. I still don’t expect New Yorkers to really understand the South. However, if I can relate to them as one who’s experienced their holy grounds, I could expand my circle in Atlanta - a city where virtually no one is from but many people call home.
 
Moultrie Townsend
(678) 637-0432